Do you know The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed or commonly known as Saint Basil’s Cathedral which is a former church in Red Square in Moscow, Russia?. Then you should know this too. Here in Indonesia we have the answer for the Church called An Nurumu Mosque. Just like its name, this construction basically a Mosque located in Jogjakarta Province of Indonesia.

An Nurumi Mosque is a mosque that briefly looked like Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, Russia. As we know the Saint Basil Church is known as One of the “icon of Moscow” in Russian history, It was built from 1555–61 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, which is two Muslim Khanates in Central Asia. In addition in that area there is also have “Red Square” which very famous because it is often used as a state ceremony, the national celebration and military parade since the days Soviet Union till Russia now. And if you visit the Red Square, then you will see a tall building that is very striking colorful, the Cathedral Church of St. Basil. Just like the picture below:

Unique hallmark of the Russian Orthodox Church is much like an onion-shaped dome with a different color in each dome. There are blue-white, red-green, yellow-green, red-white and gold-colored dome tops, and do not forget also the symbol of the cross in each dome.

But to see this unique building you now do not need to bother to go to Russia. In Indonesia there is now building a replica of St. Basil’s Cathedral, which is mosque An Nurumi a building located in Yogyakarta. The exact location is in Yogyakarta-Solo highway of 15 km, close to the location of the temple Kalasan, the Hindu Temple.

The Locals called Masjid An Nurumi as “Kremlin mosque” . The locals also called the mosque as “Candy Mosque” as its exactly looks like colorful candy lollipop. Even many of the children who first saw the “Kremlin Mosque” thinks that it is a place to play.

The An-Nurumi mosque was first built in 2005 and completed the process for 2 years. It was inaugurated by the Governor of Yogyakarta “Sultan Hamengkubuwono X”. The local used the mosque as a place of worship, during the the Islamic fasting month, Kremlin Mosque Kremlin could not load a lot of pilgrims since they have limited spaces.

The government officials recognized that the construction of the An Nurumi Mosque was adopted and inspired by St. Basil Cathedral in Moscow, Russia. Maybe the difference is the St. Basil’s Church dome’s is attached with symbol of cross meanwhile An-Nurumi Mosque is none. The other different is its color, the lower part of St. Basil Church was dominated in orange meanwhile the mosque’s lower part dominated with white.

This is certainly deserves our appreciation and given as mean inter-religious harmony was maintained reasonably well in the region of Yogyakarta. Are you interested to visit?

Prior to launching Indonesian Sky, Gultom spent a year as the Junior Associate in one of law firm in Jakarta. Before that, Gultom attended University of North Sumatera where he majored commercial and business law. A native of Northern Tapanulian, Gultom currently resides in Western Jakarta. Follow him on Google Plus